Elementary and middle school kids in
Japan are going wild over a cartoon called Yu-Gi-Oh!,
which is serialized in a comic book magazine for boys.
It's the story of an ordinary high-school boy named
Yugi Muto who loves games. Yugi acquires a special
power that turns him into a completely different,
powerful persona, and in this form he defeats the
bad guys by beating them in card games.

Based on this series a GameBoy software, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Duel Monsters, has been made. It's a game in which
you fight the wizards and other rivals that appear
before you using cards that give the player special
powers and characteristics. The software went on sale
in December 1998, and it sold an amazing 1 million
copies within the first week.

Here's
how to play the game. You choose five cards from
the set in your hands and lay them out with the
face down. Then, you and your opponent--either another
person or the computer--both turn over one card
at a time. There are 350 kinds of cards, and by
using the various offensive powers, defensive powers,
and other characteristics of your cards skillfully,
you can take away the opponent's life points.

The player whose life points go all the way down
to zero first loses the game. If it's just a match
between two monsters, the winner would simply be
the one with the stronger offensive or defensive
power. But by using a "field" card, you can pick
a setting for the battle--such as the sea or prairie--that
is favorable for your monster. The players' strategies,
as well as chance circumstances, can sometimes lead
to dramatic situations, making it an exciting game.
Using GameBoy's communication feature, you can connect
two machines and play against a friend or trade
cards. The more you play, the higher the chances
of your coming across unusual and valuable cards,
so there is also the fun of collecting all of the
cards.